Chapter 145: The Ultimate Move Seals the Path

Right now, Beimu was clearing the opposing team's blue jungle.

He was simply too far away from the top lane.

"Did you see where the Pei Qinhu is? Go jump him!"

On the teammate's side, Damo was very eager to ambush Pei Qinhu in the top lane first.

Lin Hao had no choice but to follow along.

As a result, the Dragon wave that had just been pushed down the mid lane went to waste.

At this moment, apart from Luna, the other four players on Lin Hao's side were coming through the river.

However, their vision had already been exposed in the mid lane.

The opposing Tiger had just cleared a wave of top-lane minions meeting in the middle.

Then his vision vanished, leaving it unknown whether he was hiding in the fog of war to continue pushing or had already retreated.

Damo took the lead in moving out of the river, heading straight for the two patches of bushes on the edge.

Lin Hao followed behind, dropping a ward along the way.

Damo entered the bush at the very front, but there was no sign of Pei Qinhu.

This suggested he might have recalled to base, looped back home, or perhaps—if he were feeling reckless—was preparing to push a second wave of minions, though that would be a suicidal way to play.

There were many possibilities. He might continue pushing aggressively to create spatial pressure, or he might have just taken the opportunity to clear a wave and retreat to defend the tower. Lin Hao could not guess for sure.

Still, the only way they could catch Pei Qinhu was if the enemy chose to keep pushing.

Since the next wave of minions had just spawned anyway, this was a great time to check the area around the ruins of their own tier-one tower.

With this in mind, Lin Hao tapped the minimap near the tier-one tower location.

Led by Damo, the four of them continued moving forward.

Meanwhile, over on Pei Qinhu's voice comms, a teammate asked anxiously, "I have Wolf Trail active, can we take the fight?"

Indeed, instead of retreating, Pei Qinhu had pushed in deep. The bush he was hiding in right now was precisely the one on the right side of the tier-one tower ruins belonging to Lin Hao's team!

Pei Qinhu had naturally kept a close eye on the river vision just moments ago.

"I think we can fight!"

Noticing that Luna had still not shown on the map, Pei Qinhu calculated that Luna must be down in the bottom lane.

If that was the case, as long as his teammates collapsed in, it would be a five-versus-four!

On Lin Hao's side, they remained oblivious as Damo continued face-checking the bushes.

Just as Damo was about to enter the bush where Pei Qinhu was hiding all by himself, Pei Qinhu suddenly lunged forward as a tiger, leaping along the wall straight into the river!

Got him!

Closely trailing behind Damo, Zhong Kui pulled off a highlight-reel play in that exact split second!

He flicked his hook instantly, landing a dead-center hit that reeled in Pei Qinhu right as he jumped out from the wall!

Xishi’s first ability followed immediately, grabbing hold of Pei Qinhu during the brief stun duration from Zhong Kui’s hook.

Zhong Kui cast his ultimate on the spot, preparing to lock down Pei Qinhu, while Xishi held off on her ultimate, simply pulling him forward slightly.

Following closely, Zhong Kui channeled his ultimate for a brief moment to suppress and control Pei Qinhu.

Lin Hao fired off basic attacks from the side to dish out damage. The damage output of their composition actually relied more heavily on Baili Shouyue and Luna, but since Luna had only just reached the mid-left area, he was effectively their primary source of damage for now.

Even though he had built the Infinity Edge set and opted for a sniper playstyle, Shouyue’s single-target damage was still formidable. In an instant, Pei Qinhu's health bar was melted down to a sliver by the concentrated fire!

Right at that moment, however, the vision provided by the ward Lin Hao had casually placed in the river earlier abruptly revealed four opposing players!

Since Lin Hao’s stream had no delay, some viewers watching across split screens kindly chimed in with warnings.

"The enemy is counter-ganking!"

"Run, kids, run!"

"It's over, the enemy popped Wolf Trail."

Lin Hao didn't check the chat, but the ward in the river laid the enemy's movements bare.

How dared the enemy team charge right at them with Wolf Trail active?

Lin Hao raised an eyebrow and thought to himself: This is getting a bit troublesome.

Xishi and Zhong Kui had poured almost all their skills into Pei Qinhu. Even though there were four of them here, the outcome of this clash could easily shatter upon impact.

His current positioning was a bit awkward. Lin Hao kept auto-attacking while walking closer to the pinned Pei Qinhu, intending to land a second skill.

However, the remaining four enemies surged forward like a hurricane. Donghuang ran at the very front, with Li Yuanfang, Xiahou Dun, and Yang Yuhuan closely trailing behind, closing the distance in the blink of an eye!

Without hesitation, Lin Hao canceled the point-blank second skill he was about to cast and immediately triggered his ultimate!

The bullet fired during his escape passed right through Pei Qinhu, securing the kill, while Baili Shouyue instantly vaulted backward!

The very next moment, Donghuang flashed over the wall of the bush and slammed down his ultimate!

Donghuang locked down Damo!

To be honest, his original target for the ultimate was Shouyue.

To tell the truth, he had been holding a grudge against this Shouyue for a long time, but Shouyue's positioning had always been so far back that Donghuang hadn't managed to latch onto him once this entire match.

This time, he flashed in and rapidly cast his ultimate using the wheel cursor, but he was a fraction of a second too late, as Shouyue had already vaulted away with his ultimate.

Still, catching Damo wasn't a bad consolation prize.

Xishi and Zhong Kui immediately pulled back.

At this juncture, Meng Lan saw the unfolding scene and used his second skill to roll over the wall following Donghuang, then hurled his ultimate's massive flying dart.

This ultimate wasn't aimed in front of Damo, but rather behind Zhong Kui, virtually sealing off the path leading out of the bush!

The Marksman rolled into position and used his ultimate to zone off the area!

The massive dart began to spin. Amidst the slowing effect, Xishi flashed away immediately to create distance, but Zhong Kui wasn't as fortunate, forced to retreat sluggishly through the deceleration zone.

Just then, Beimu's voice rang out over the team communications.

"Don't chicken out, fight them! I'm here!"

Only then did Lin Hao's teammates notice that Beimu's position was already nearly at the dragon pit.

Their composition indeed lacked burst damage, but it made up for it with heavy crowd control. Their initial instinct to retreat stemmed from the fact that all their CC abilities were still on cooldown.

However, if Luna could arrive in time, they could immediately turn the tables and counter-attack!

As high-tier masters, Zhong Kui turned around instantly, abandoning any thought of running. He marched right back forward, attempting to use his passive explosion on Li Yuanfang.

Lin Hao decisively set up his sniper stance on the spot, bringing his second skill into alignment!

Li Yuanfang, however, didn't use his ultimate on Damo, which gave Damo a brief window to breathe. Although he was suppressed by Donghuang, the two-second duration ended just as Donghuang's ultimate expired, bringing Damo's health right down to the threshold that triggers the Undying Blade passive.

The split second Donghuang's ultimate finished, Damo chained into his own ultimate kick!

Meng Lan's Li Yuanfang anticipated this ultimate as well. Almost a fraction of a second before Donghuang's suppression ended, Li Yuanfang flashed backward!

With a chime, Li Yuanfang reappeared in the river, turned around, and resumed outputting damage!

After slamming Donghuang into the wall with his first phase, Damo quickly executed the second phase of his ultimate, dashing through the wall to kick Li Yuanfang. But before he could even land a single basic attack, he was gunned down by the combined damage of Li Yuanfang and Yang Yuhuan!